The organization noted CU’s $5.3 billion contribution to the Colorado economy and that it employed more than 43,000 people from 2011 to 2012. “The school’s municipal bonds hold significant appeal, especially for those looking for shorter maturities,” the report states.Municipal bonds are debt issued by local governments, state governments, districts and other entities that serve a civic purpose. They are attractive to investors because most are exempt from federal income taxes regardless of the investor’s tax bracket.

Michael Johnston, chief operating officer of Mitre Media, which runs MunicipalBonds.com, said the company set a limit on how soon a bond would mature when conducting this study.

“We did not have a limit on maturity length, but we wanted to find issues for those looking for both short-term and long-term investments,” he said. “The University of Colorado matches up well for investors looking for a safe, short-term investment.”

Donald Eldhart, treasurer and associate vice president and chief investment officer at CU, said being recognized as a safe investment is a boon for the university.

“The institutions on this list provide value to the buyers of tax-exempt securities,” Eldhart said. “That is, based on the strength of the issuer and the return on investment, investors would choose bonds issued by these institutions over the other tens of thousands of bonds out there that they could possibly buy.”

MunicipalBonds.com provides real-time trading data, ratings information from S&P and Moody’s, search tools, archived trade data, education, analytics and state-by-state features to help people make informed decisions about their municipal bond investments.